Interesting question on the N Fk Flow. The diversion has not changed freshwater input much, if at all. The water goes in at the powerhouse. There was in interesting study about the impacts of the diversion and the really big one is that the Skok delta has shrunk. Less material is being brought down the river.

It would be interesting to look at timing of the FW input because storage in the enlarged Cushman means more water enters the Canal in summer than used to. Conversely, less may enter in winter/spring. Changes currents.

I think one of the biggest things adding to the increase in algae blooms is the decrease (generally through harvest) of clams. This is especially so for those clams that are subtidal and so were never harvested.

Before development and harvest, the shellfish in the Chesapeake Bay filtered the whole bay in a couple of days. Numbers now are such that there is one filtering per year. The Zebra Mussels in Lake Erie have shown what filtering can do.

I am further not so sure that the septic tanks and putting out those chum carcasses comes even close to what the pre-fishery/development input of nutrients was. But, especially with septics, it now comes year around, especially in summer with those long days and lights of light rather than in the cloudy fall/winter.